Kukla's Korner Hockey

Category: NHL-Talk

Two weeks after the joint NHL-NHLPA competition committee met in New York, the Players' Association held firm on its push for the NHL to jump directly to a five-minute overtime featuring 3-on-3 play.

The original recommendation from the NHL was to follow the AHL's model of a 4-on-4 overtime which is not only two minutes longer, but slides to 3-on-3 after three minutes of play. The AHL was able to decide approximately 75 per cent of its games last season which went past regulation without the need for a shootout, up from 35.3 per cent in 2013-14.

The NHL's general managers relented on Tuesday during their meeting, recommending a change to 3-on-3 for next season. That rule change is expected to be formally approved by the Board of Governors when they meet here on Wednesday.

The Board of Governors will likely also rubber stamp the addition of a coaches' challenge for offside and goaltender interference calls.

"Our managers were willing to accept 3-on-3, hoping that it will bring more results in overtime than we've got right now," NHL senior vice president of hockey operations Colin Campbell said. "I'm not sure. It will be interesting to see what the coaches do with it."

Last season, only approximately 45 per cent of the games extended beyond regulation were decided in overtime.

Desperate for a change, the NHL wasn't keen on approving an untested rule change for next season, particularly after hybrid icing was met with mixed results following a short preseason proving period. But the belief is the NHLPA pushed for either full 3-on-3, or no overtime change at all for next season.

Defenders of the traditional draft order note that it preserves fairness, allowing poor teams the chance to rebuild with obvious young talent that is not available to the league’s powers. But, you want fairness? Wipe the thing out entirely. With the NHL’s salary cap linked to revenues already in place, there would be no risk that big-money teams would snap up all the top talent and leave small-market teams to fight over a bunch of pluggers — the imbalance often on display in international soccer, where all but a small number of powerhouses are aware that if any of their players eventually become really good, they will also be almost certain to leave.

No, the fascinating thing about a draft-less NHL would be how much it would force team management to reconsider player values. Someone in his early 20s today is highly valuable to a team precisely because his contract is within CBA-defined affordable limits. But what if those limits didn’t exist? Tampa Bay has had seven years of Steven Stamkos at below market value because their 2007-08 mediocrity was rewarded with a 2008 first overall draft pick and the cap-friendly contract that the CBA dictates for a player’s early years. Would some other team have offered to pay him superstar money with his first contract as an 18-year-old? The more relevant question today is for Connor McDavid: As of Friday, Edmonton gets him for seven years on the cheap. But how many teams would offer him, today, the eight-year, $84-million contract that the Chicago Blackhawks gave to each of Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane last summer?

In a labour of hockey love, the Ottawa born and bred brothers – Ryan, 28, Jamie, 24, and Chris, 23 — spend their evenings and weekends updating hockeyscap.com, their slick website which tracks player salaries and allows fans an insight into the financial puzzles faced by general managers.

“From the get go, we’ve worked very hard to make it an easy to use website,” says Jamie Davis, who designed the site.

“Anytime there’s a transaction or a signing in the NHL, a GM has to look at the salary cap situation to see how cap compliant a team is. As a fan, I want to know what opportunities are available to teams.”

The limits of the salary cap, which is expected to land somewhere in the $70 million — $71 million range for the 2015-16 season, mean rosters are always in flux.

With the NHL draft this weekend and free agency beginning July 1, it’s a busy few weeks for general managers in trying to figure out the future.

NEW YORK/TORONTO (June 23, 2015) – The National Hockey League and the National Hockey League Players’ Association today announced that the Team Payroll Range established for the 2015-16 League Year, pursuant to the Collective Bargaining Agreement, provides for a Lower Limit of $52.8 million, an Adjusted Midpoint of $62.1 million and an Upper Limit of $71.4 million.

The NHL's general managers open a busy 48-hour window here with their annual end-of-season meeting Tuesday afternoon.

This is the first time the general managers will meet in Las Vegas. Generally this meeting takes place during the Stanley Cup Final, in one of the participating cities.

The managers are expected to find out Tuesday what the salary cap is for the 2015-16 season. During his State of the League address at the Final, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said the range will most likely be between $70 and $71 million.

Once the ceiling is set, the managers will begin the process of getting their rosters cap-compliant for the upcoming season. Several teams are expected to have to shed some salary and that process will likely begin at these meetings as teams discuss potential trades, which could be consummated before the 2015 NHL Draft in Sunrise, Fla., this weekend or after the start of free agency on July 1.

"Everybody's sort of trying to get a real good solid view of the landscape ahead of each and every one of us heading into the draft," said Don Sweeney, the new general manager of the Boston Bruins.

There will be an update Tuesday on the work being done by the competition committee on a new overtime format. The discussion about the look of that format will continue after the committee asked for more time to discuss the issue. The managers proposed a form of 3-on-3 overtime at their last meeting in March.

On this steamy desert afternoon, sweaty construction workers continue to weld, rivet and hammer together the skeleton of the spectacular Las Vegas Arena, Sin City’s future hockey home. At least that’s what it will be if entrepreneur Bill Foley has his way.

Perhaps the huge ad plastered on a neighbouring building tells the whole story.

The one which has the word “DRINK” blaring in huge letters.

For visiting coaches whose teams come here in the event Foley amd his friends land their franchise, that might be the last advice they want their players to see as they pull into the magnificent new rink, which is just a stagger away from the famed Strip.

But for the time being, maybe Foley hopes the NHL Board of Governors who are here for meetings this week will get the message and rubber stamp the process that will bring an NHL team one step closer to coming here.

In other words, DRINK Foley’s Kool-Aid that professional hockey’s elite league belongs in Vegas. And vice versa.

To that end, all the signs are there that a vote on an expansion team for Vegas could come as early as September.

Here are the big storylines to watch for during what will be a busy week:

The mess in the desert: The governors will also get an update on the latest in the never-ending saga of the Arizona Coyotes and their tortured relationship with the City of Glendale. The city has voted to dissolve the current lease agreement signed two years ago with the ownership group that bought the team from the NHL. Ownership has received a temporary injunction, so business can continue more or less as usual, and filed a $200 million lawsuit for damages against the City of Glendale, which is alleging conflict of interest issues stemming from the hiring of a former city attorney. Messy? Yes. Unexpected? In Glendale, nothing is unexpected. The governors will also get an update about a subtle shifting of ownership makeup within the Coyotes' structure that sees several well-heeled investors taking a more prominent role while Andrew Barroway, who purchased 51 percent of the team on Dec. 31, is taking a lesser role amid rumors he did not have nearly as much financial clout as first believed. Barroway will nonetheless remain the investor who controls the largest percentage of the Coyotes, assuming the governors approve the restructuring.

Talk not of relocation: One thing the governors are not expected to give much time to is the idea of relocation in general and, specifically, relocation of an existing franchise to Las Vegas. Bettman has insisted the Florida Panthers, the other team most often linked to relocation talk along with the Coyotes, aren't going anywhere. And there is no way the owners would trade in the expected $500 million expansion fee expected from a new team in Vegas for considerably less in relocation fees. As one person familiar with the process told ESPN.com, the two issues -- the Coyotes' ongoing lease issues and possible expansion into Vegas -- are completely unrelated.

Something has to change – and it isn’t going to happen organically. It’s time to start the process by asking the American Hockey League to test slightly larger nets in the same way the AHL agreed to test proposed changes to overtime last season. The AHL is a great incubator for the NHL and willingly assists in these experiments. It’s time to take the next step soon – or instead of the 3-2 league the NHL is now, eventually it will be a 2-1 league. And that is a direction they’ll need to reverse before it’s too late.

-Eric Duhatschek of the Globe and Mail where you can read more on this topic.